Similarities Between Okonkwo And Nwoye

Chinua Achebe’s critically acclaimed novel Things Fall Apart tells the story of a decorated and powerful chief of the Igbo village tribe named Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a strong independent man who came up from nothing in his life and refused to return to earth as the same way he started, he believed he was destined for greatness. Perhaps Okonkwo’s most driving factor for this is his father died a beggar and he became disgusted how his father went out with no achievements or accomplishments to his name. Okonkwo is very prideful as a result of his humble upbringing and believes that the only way one can be successful is through Old Ways of the Igbo Tribe. As a result, Okonkwo is hell-bent

9. “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth.”

Okonkwo’s oldest son, Nwoye, has to achieve high expectations, to be just like his father. If he falls short of Okonkwo’s near perfection, he will face consequence usually in the form of physical harm. Okonkwo wants Nwoye to be strong, powerful, independent, and hard-working. He must be like is father, and not like his grandfather, Unoka, or his mother. Unoka was an absolute failure in Okonkwo’s eyes, and a terrible father, who did nothing to help the family. Okonkwo is a man and wants his son to be a man too, not womanly like his mother. Okonkwo wanted “his son to be a great farmer and a great man” (33). Okonkwo is “worried about Nwoye....my children do not resemble me...too much of his mother in him” (66). Okonkwo knows that Nwoye resembles more of his mother than him, but also knows that he resembles Unoka too. Both fathers want their sons to be just like them, but do little to ask what they want in life, and neither father will budge on what they want for their sons.

All Okonkwo ever wanted was to be better than his father. Not to prove to himself that he was better, but to prove it to the other villagers. As a way to achieve this, he hardened himself at young age and took lead role in his homelife. Okonkwo was never complacent until Ikemefuna came only. Okonkwo had plenty of children, but none of them to ever be just right. Nwoye reminded him too much Unoka and put the fear of repetition in his heart and Enzima was perfect, she knew Okonkwo like the back of her hand but she was of course, a female. Ikemefuna took up the son role.

For Nwoye, after Ikemefuna's murder Nwoye seems to have finally given up on his father and loses reverence towards him. When Nwoye was at the stage of confusion he experiences an epiphany after being drawn to the new religion that made him “feel a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul” following his exposure to Christianity (147). This was an escape for Nwoye to finally find meaning in his life and ultimately make the decision to start a new life and leave the past behind. Compared to Nwoye, after Okonkwo’s time of crisis, he is faced with a transformed village and culture seeing that at the time of Okonkwo’s life many things were changing. This causes Okonkwo to experience denial and “mourn for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart” (183). Drowned with memories of the past, Okonkwo misses the time at which he knew and was comfortable with. Ultimately, Okonkwo chooses to end his own life in fear that no longer exists in his clan and feels he is no match against the white men, as compared to Nwoye who chooses to live life

The focus of the individual is prominent in Things Fall Apart, a tale of an almost anti-social being in a world dominated by change.  Achebe's main character, Okonkwo, is the window to the dramatization of social, economic, and political change of the nation known as Nigeria.  The focus of the narrative is the struggle of a strong and well respected individual to maintain his own life course, and to differentiate this outcome from the end result of his lethargic father's life.  The story embodies the ideal of embracing the individual's goals and aspirations to yield an outcome

The relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye is very stressful and bitter as Okonkwo has very high expectation for his eldest son. Hence Okonkwo always “sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating” when he was irritated

One quotation that expresses Okonkwo’s view of manliness states Okonkwo “was always happy when he heard [Nwoye] grumbling about women. That showed that in time he would be able to control his womenfolk” (53). This quotation shows that Oknonkwo feels pleasure when his son displays signs of power, such as the control of the perceived weaker gender. Ergo, Okonkwo views the subordination of others by his son as an example of “masculinity.” This idea is further supported by the quotation: “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children… he was not really a man” (53). Oknonkwo clearly considers utter authority of one’s nuclear family as a prerequisite to meet “manhood.” He literally states that a man without patriarchy in his family is not a man. Therefore, when Nwoye displays the early signs of this dominance, like the grumbling about his subordinate women’s issues, Okonkwo is finally considering his son “masculine” as shown by his happiness.

This story maintained a constant theme of conflict. Nwoye, lives in perpetual fear of his father. Okonkwo constantly chastises his son and finds a fault with everything he

Okonkwo considers Nwoke to be weak, lazy and is more feminine than masculine. He feared that Nwoke will turn out to be like Unoka so, “he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating” (11). Achebe shows that Okonkwo wants his son to be strong and fierce like him, but when this was not the case he feels that harming Nwoke will teach him. Though instead of the punishment helping Nwoke become manly, it had a negative effect on Nwoke leading him to fear and resents his father. In addition, the small relationship they had was completely broken when Nwoke finds an interest for the Christian religion. When Okonkwo hears that Nwoke is among the Christians, he gets furious and disowns his son because he does not want Nwoke to join the church . Likewise, when Obierika ask Nwoke how his father is he answers saying, “I don’t know. He is not my father” (124). This shows that instead of working out their different opinions they fought and in the end tore their relationship apart. One can not miss the reality that if Okonkwo was kind and not hurtful towards Nwoke tun he would have stayed with the Ibo culture. If this was the cause then the father and son would have had a better relationship. In the end the reader can conclude that Nwoke and Okonkwo’s relationship failed because of the actions and feelings they had for each

Okonkwo thinks he is the owner of his household and he shows no mercy to anyone who angers him. “He ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives…lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness.” (Achebe, Chapter 2, p.8). Okonkwo beats his children and wives because of his temper which is influenced by the Igbo society; he puts on a hard exterior because he is afraid of being weak and unsuccessful. At one point, he attempts to kill his second wife with a gun because he thinks she is the cause of a tree’s death. In order to prove his power and strength, without thinking of the consequences, Okonkwo beats his youngest wife during the week of peace - a week when the village celebrates peace and who ever disrupts the peace will be punished by Ala, the earth goddess (Lycos, online). “His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for the fear of a goddess.” (Achebe, Chapter 4, p.21). Okonkwo lives in a male dominant society where men are pressured to be strong and successful; because of these influences, Okonkwo develops an inner

Okonkwo despises his father to an extent that Okonkwo strives to be nothing like Unoka. Okonkwo lives his life and his goal is to be one of the high lords of the clan (Achebe 131). Okonkwo’s life goal is to be the opposite of his father, who is seen as a failure in the Ibo society. Unlike his father who did not fulfill the community's ideals of success Okonkwo did, and strives to achieve his whole life to prove that he was not similar to his father, because he does not want to be like someone who he despises. Similarly to Okonkwo, Nwoye does not have a good relationship with his father, because Nwoye does not act like him. Nwoye Knew that he should act violent like his father, but he preferred to be with his mother and listen to stories (Achebe 53). From a young age Nwoye knew he did not want to be like his father, because he did not approve of the way Okonkwo acts thus he rebelled by being like his mother and preferring kindness and stories over violence. Besides not wanting to be violent like his father, Nwoye rebels by converting to christianity. Nwoye converts, changes his name to Isaac and goes to college to become a teacher (Achebe 182). Nwoye converting and changing his name is the ultimate rebellion because he literally changes everything Okonkwo tried to make Nwoye. Okonkwo attempted to make Nwoye a strong man in the eyes of Ibo society just it in turn made Nwoye rebel and turn

Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son who Okonkwo considers unforgivably emasculate and very much like his father, Unoka. As a child, Nwoye usually receives the brunt of his father’s criticism and remains feeling unwanted. Eventually, Ikemefuna comes to fill that void and Nwoye, in his adoration of his adoptive brother, begins to takes after him. Also In a take strange way, Ikemefuna fills the role of both father and brother for Nwoye, providing him with a peer to share his thoughts and a person to look up to. As Ikemefuna rubs off on Nwoye, Okonkwo begins to find more favor with both of the boys. As a result , the three begin to form an unbreakable bond, or so they thought.

Nwoye’s betrayal in the novel is the same level of betrayal that Achebe is condemned with in his lifetime. African literary theorists who vie for the purity of African literature for African languages defy Achebe as a European traitor, writing his stories with his back turned to his native homeland. Yet this thesis argues for a reevaluation of that criticism. Achebe does not in fact deny his beliefs, his country, or his heritage. He rather aligns himself in a tragically ironic way with the hero of Things Fall Apart. Achebe writes his own struggle with colonialism into the life and death of Okonkwo. It is interesting to note that Achebe’s father was in many ways very similar to Nwoye. His father, Isaiah Achebe, was orphaned early in life and spent most of his childhood with his uncle, Udoh. Udoh was a man of the land; he prided himself on tradition and leadership. Chinua writes in his essay, “My Dad and Me,” that the differences between Isaiah and Udoh were seen early through the eyes of Chinua, a questioning child who was placed in the middle

Lastly, the author had a purpose for making the characters act they way that they did. He chose everything with care for his novel. “How is your father? Oberika asked, not knowing what else to say. I don’t know. He is not my father, said Nwoye, unhappily.” (151/4) With this quote, it shows the reader how Nwoye came to hate his father. Okonkwo pushed him so hard that Nwoye became independent. He had completed his goal but not how he wanted it to happen. “Nwoye turned round to walk into the inner compound when his father, suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck.” (151/4) Okonkwo was still violent with his son because he had converted into a Christian. Which is something that he did not agree with. The author’s purpose for this part in the novel